Despite her being Miss Viking Fest for less than two weeks, Jasmine Campbell’s crowning is already causing a stir in Poulsbo and elsewhere — for the wrongest reasons we can think of.

She’s African-American.

The news hit the Herald like a ton of bricks this week, we can only imagine the negative impact it had on Jasmine. And while we were subsequently asked to let the information sit until after Viking Fest for fear of an incident at what has become Poulsbo’s biggest annual celebration, we firmly believe that such ugliness should never be buried.

Not for two weeks. Not for two days. Not for two hours. Not for two seconds.

We do not do this to bring additional pain to Jasmine and her family and friends, the city or the fine folks at Viking Fest Corporation but rather to show our support of all of them.

Racism should never be put off, rather it should be faced and dealt with immediately. At last check, 11 letters had been received on the topic. Eleven.

How dare anyone, local or national, make race an issue for a local pageant in which serving the community and earning money for college are the primary goals. Another goal, one that was no doubt overlooked by the letter writers, is the fact that pageants also help build participants’ self-esteem.

That’s pretty difficult to do when some believe the “worthiness” of contestants should be based on the color of their skin.

Apparently, the bigots must believe, it’s OK if “those people” are princesses or even runner-ups but winners and representatives of an ever-diversifying community with strong Nordic heritage? Never!

We can only wonder at the thought process that lead these people to write down their hurtful tripe …

Maybe “they” should simply have their own pageant just to ensure that fine, upstanding white folks like us won’t have to worry about one of “them” winning such a title again. It could be called the Miss Darker-Skin-Than-Is-Appropriate-For–Royalty-Who-Represent-Cities-With-Nordic-Heritage Pageant and could be held after Viking Fest and other like events in Kitsap County to ensure winners are unable to represent their community by driving down the main drag in one of those hoopties, or whatever “they” drive.

Even better, to show how tolerant we all are, “they” could have a place in the parades. At the end, behind the fire engines. “They” could be on a bus — in the backseats, of course. All other seats should be reserved for whites, just in case a few decide to hop on as well …

The “reasoning,” and we use that word in its loosest meaning, is, how could the pageant organizers allow a “negro” — as one letter writer called her — to win an event that represents a community with Scandinavian roots? Other writers said Miss Viking Fest should be true to the Nordic heritage of the city i.e. blonde hair, blue eyes, traits that pretty much exclusively go with fair skin.

How dare they tarnish the identity of Poulsbo with such thinly-guised hatred? It certainly has no place here, or anywhere for that matter.

Our heart goes out to Jasmine on this and, rest assured, we are very proud of her and supportive of this year’s celebration of Norwegian Independence Day. The event will be bigger than ever May 19-21, and while such an incident is certainly hurting our 2006 Miss Viking Fest, we know she will rise above it all and continue to shine as an example for all to emulate.